A CRITIC OF STYLE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 16, 20 January 1915, Page 2

A CRITIC OF STYLE.

[To The Editor Stiiatford Post.] Sir,—As a disinterested observer in your widely-circulated pages of the controversy over municipal matters which is at present being waged between Mr Wilson and Mr Kirkwood, permit fne to remark that I have read with admiring attention Mr Wilson's scathing 'attack and Mr Kirkwood'a well-worded and dignified reply. I was, however, intensely amused at seeing in your issue of Monday evening "Amos Keetur's" remarkable letter, in which .under a nom-de-plume which may conceal the writer's identity but not his literary (?) style, he vainly endeavors to overwhelm, in an avalanche of irony, Mr Wilson's bonafide and well-mentioned efforts toward an amelioration in municipal works and municipal finances. But the anonymous civic humorist,-who seeks to submerge Mr Wilson's praiseworthy efforts for the public good under the flow of bis satirical verbosity, therein fails egregiously, since he evidently does not understand that, to be effective, such a method of counter-at-tack requires to be backed by a high. ,er literary ability than that with which the" worthy "Amos Keetur" has striven so strenuously to ridicule Mr Wilson. For example, the Maori words "arike toa," which "Amos Keetur" ironically applies to Mr Wilson, are spelt "ariki toa" in oven the simplest of Maori text-books, while the Latin "verbatum" (sic!) with which bo so dashingly counters Mr Wilson used to be spelt "verbatim." I can hardly believe that the Latin language lias undergone such remarkable inflexion within recent years, nor the Maori either, although possibly "lapsi" may be permitted to such a "sculptor of subtle syntax, scribbler of sapient screed" as is, evidently, the humoristic Mr "Amos Keetur." fn conclusion, Mr Editor, since hr has thus chosen to nominally conceal his identity, perhaps it would be neither discourteous nor amiss on my part to do likewise in signing myself. BALBUS.